The Xisto Cru Branco has so much class, detail, and cut that the wine has gained a cult following.
It's one of the most unlikely entrants to cult status. The Xisto Cru Branco comes from Duoro (aka Port country), a region that no one would expect to find a white wine of such riveting minerality and tension.
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The wine is a testament to Luis Seabra's brilliance as a winemaker. Seabra is a key player in the vinicultural revolution that’s making Portugal one of the most exciting places in all of wine. He was the winemaker at the famed Port house, Niepoort. In 2012, he left to pursue working in a more personal style. “Cru” translates as “raw” in Portuguese, and Seabra strives to present the terroir in the most unmediated way.
Here you get choice vineyards and extremely sensitive and largely hands-off winemaking. The Xisto Cru Branco comes from mica schist soils in southern Douro. The vines were planted between 1920-1933, and the wine is a blend of Rabigato, Codega, Gouveio, and Viosinho Dozelino Branco. The high-altitude vineyards experience dramatic differences between day and night-time temperatures. This helps explain how Seabra is able to coax such extraordinary verve out of the wines.
The 2019 Xisto Cru is a little more powerful than the 2016 and 2018 that we've offered previously. It offers a finely tuned harmony and sleek minerality. The wine offers a crystal clear stoniness that's focused and persistent.
We bought every bottle that we could get our hands on. Even still, we should warn you that there's never enough of this wine to go around. Production is modest, and when people taste Seabra's wines, they frequently get obsessed with them.
To order, email offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits
